alifornia State University San Bernardino Department of Computer Science
Senior Project and Independent Study Presentations 10-12 & 1-3pm
Date Friday, December 7, 2007 
Time: 1:30-2pm
David Randolph -- eMail Server using SATA RAID

Abstract
For this project I designed and implemented a new email server 
infrastructure for the CSUSB Administration & Finance Technical Services 
department to replace the existing server, which had reached maximum 
capacity.  The requirements for the new server configuration were to add 
redundancy and capacity as part of the upgrade; therefore a two-server 
failover cluster and a redundant disk array (RAID) were selected.  A key 
aspect of this project was to evaluate, test, and deploy the RAID storage 
system for these servers using SATA hard drives instead of a more 
traditional SCSI/SAS system.  A primary goal was to achieve a better value
in the cost per gigabyte of storage while maintaining a high level of 
redundancy and performance.  SATA hard drives currently offer much higher 
capacity at a fraction of the cost of SCSI/SAS hard drives.  The SATA RAID
storage system was extensively tested and benchmarked specifically for a 
Microsoft Exchange system configuration.   I will be presenting a summary 
of my key findings from evaluation and deployment of this system.